Earthquake in Wales?

Chris M.

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South Wales, UK
So here I am, almost done catching up with the posts from last night up in the General Flashlight board, when I feel a slight vibration accompanied by a low rumble-like noise, thought it may have been a large truck accelerating down the road- except I heard no engine and our road is narrow and full of parked cars so large vehicles rarely come here. Some of the torches I have all closely lined up on the windowsill rattled faintly against the window.

A moment later there`s a dull but noteable "thump" which I felt/saw- shook the wall and floor and made most of the torches rattle more! I have a load of light bulbs in hang-up retail card packs pinned on the end wall in here (for those who don`t know, I`m an avid light bulb collector!) and remember seeing some of those wobble (flap outwards slightly), out of the corner of my eye. Felt like maybe someone had hit the outside wall of the house with a big heavy object like a rock or large mallet, except the noise was much duller, sort of distant, so it couldn`t have been that.
The slight rumble/vibration faded away within seconds. The whole event can`t have lasted more than 8-10 seconds. I had a peek out the front window and the road was quiet, no-one near the house either. No supersonic aircraft in the sky that I could have seen, so I don`t think `twere a Sonic Boom.


Could it have been an earth tremor? I know in the past there have been very slight tremors in this country but those were nothing more than a slight vibration that would make drinking glasses in a cupboard (or flashlights on a windowsill) rattle slightly, and are usually otherwise un-feelable. I`ve never experienced a "thump" before.

I know I`m the only Welshman here so asking if anyone else felt it would be largely meaningless. Just thought it was an odd little anecdote for the end of a long and tiring day (and perhaps someone knows a good international meterological site that has up to the minute earthquake reports, or somet like that)....

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Brock

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Green Bay, WI USA
Chris check out
http://quake.usgs.gov/

They don't have any info a quake in your area, any new info? Around here they are building some large building about a mile away and everyone once in a while they have to blast. It is amazing, no sound to speak of, but a rumble (no sound just shaking), then a hard thump. Sort of like thunder, but with much more feeling and not as random as thunder the rumble part.
 

Tree

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My work is across the street from several railroad tracks and the Mississippi river. A couple times a week you can feel the earth move from the heavy train cars colliding into each other to connect a set of cars. It will just about knock you off your feet if you are not careful. The funny part is the ones that move the earth the most you don't hardly hear, but the loud crashing ones you don't feel at all.
 

The_LED_Museum

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If he's got Tommyknockers, then that explains - precisely - where all those lost springs, knobs, batteries, and sometimes even whole torches themselves have gone after vanishing from Chris's laboratory.

I'd pick up the phone and call Orkin.
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rlhess

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by The LED Museum:

I guess you don't get THOSE kind of quakes over there in the UK.
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My recollection is that at least one (if not more) of the medieval English cathedrals suffered damage in an earthquake. It sticks in the back of my mind that it was Lincoln, but I could be all wet on that. Norwich's spire fell at one point, so that might be it...but I haven't read about this in 20+ years...

Cheers,

Richard
 

lightlover

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I once read that in the UK over the last 700 years (or so) we've had two injuries and one fatality from earthquakes.

The poor man who died was hit on the head by a Church spire's dislodged roof-slate, sometime in the 15th Century !
(That might have been the Norwich incident you mention, Richard.)

Jahn
 

The_LED_Museum

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by rlhess:

My recollection is that at least one (if not more) of the medieval English cathedrals suffered damage in an earthquake.
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I'd say we get one about once a year that's strong enough to break chimmneys off, crack walls, and break dishes near the epicenter; and another one or two strong enough to be felt in a widespread area but cause no damage at all. The remainder - hundreds of them - are too small to be noticed.

Every 2-4 years we get one that causes minor but widespread damage (grocery shelves partially emptied, TV sets & fishbowls slide off their stands, bottles broken inside refrigerators, dishes broken, pictures fly off the wall or become crooked; that kind of thing).


And approximately every 50 years we get one like the Nisqually quake of 2001 that destroys entire buildings, breaks large furniture & appliances, and breaks people's chimmneys and dishes in other states! That one was felt by residents of Utah and Alasak, even though it was centered in the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia area.

Chris's earthquake sounds like it was probably in the magnitude 3.0 to 3.5 range, and wasn't all that many dozens of miles from his house. Just enough to make freestanding objects rattle and hanging things sway a little. Whoever has a house built right on top of it probably lost a few plates, bowls, & cups, but otherwise would have no damage.
 

The_LED_Museum

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We had one here a few days ago that knocked over a stuffed animal that was on top of my computer but was otherwise unfelt. Closer to the epicenter somewhat west/southwest of Seattle, somebody's dishes got busted, but that was the extent of things.

I usually have digi-tunes playing on the computer when I work (such as the SID tube playing right at this moment), so I've never actually heard what an earthquake sounds like. Most earthquake survivors who can remember the sound claim it sounds like a distant freight train with a substantial infrasonic component that seems to be "felt" inside the head, rather than heard with the ears.

Usually, the sound of a building's structure flexing, walls & ceilings cracking, pipes breaking, water splashing & sloshing out of fishtanks & toilet bowls, fridges banging back and forth against the walls of their cubby, cans flying out of cubboards and smashing against cabinets on the other side of the kitchen, highboys toppling over and becoming lowboys, chairs & couches snapping, and the sound of TV sets, lamps, vases, figurines, books, and other small objects within the building falling and becoming broken tends to mask out the sound of the temblor itself.
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I guess you don't get THOSE kind of quakes over there in the UK.
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Chris M.

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South Wales, UK
Guess what happened again?
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Just after 1AM last night/this morning, I was drifting off to sleep when I notice a vibration- kind of like a large slow vee-hickle was going by outside. But there was no sound, except the big lumpy Maglite that I keep stuffed down behind the bed, rattling against the headboard. Sound familiar so far? A few moments later was a sharp-ish *thump*, and a few moments after, the vibrating died down. Just like I`d experienced on June 20th, but the thud was sharper. OK, so I`m almost half asleep, but I knew I`d not dreamt it.

This: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2275158.stm proves I didn`t dream it. The biggest earth tremor to hit the UK in a decade struck in Dudley last night.

FYI I`m indicated on this embelishment of the map on that BBC News page.....

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.....and although I`m outside those concentric circles, I sure as damn did feel something, so it was certainly felt this far away.

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The_LED_Museum

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We had a 4.something here a few days ago, but it was in northwestern Washington near the US/Canada border (~150-200 miles away), and I slept right through it. I doubt it would have felt any stronger than yours, and it certainly didn't cause any damage. But people from Everett Washington to Victoria BC phoned radio & TV stations after having felt it or hearing a vase fall over.

I now keep the fishtank only half full, and the tower part of the new computer is in the center of my installation, between two monitors. The only thing I might stand to have go down is the right channel speakers and the subwoofer, and they'll fall on a shag rug if they do go down. Probably also lose both lamps in my work area, but they should fall where they won't do too much collateral damage. One straight to the floor, the other might hit a phone and a chair on the way down.
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Charles Bradshaw

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Mansfield, OH
mag 4.8, 20 KM west of Birmingham. Depth 9.6 KM
2002 09 22 23:53:14 UTC, 52.52N 2.14W

very shallow event, no surprise you would feel it like that.

Source: NEIS
 

Size15's

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Kettering, England
I'm 20 miles North of London. I was awake until 02:30. Perhaps the earth moves for me so often that a mere 4.8 just didn't rock my boat?

Of course, as soon as I heard about the quake on the radio in the morning, I took the day off work as a precaution.

Al
 
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